No more Mr Nice Guy (or Girl)

No more Mr Nice Guy (or Girl)

Hello Bloggers,

OK – the Christmas festivities have evaporated like snow, your bank statement has landed on the door mat showing you’ve exceeded your overdraft limit, your credit cards are all on maximum, there’s Little Johnnie’s birthday fast approaching, and to add to your tale of financial woe we’re in the midst of a public sector pay freeze – with another year’s worth beckoning. What to do?

Well – why not try having a chat with your boss about your pay? In recent research conducted and published by US work behaviour experts, ‘The Journal of Organizational Behavior’ they claim that workers who actively seek a pay increase and are ‘assertive’ with their boss when it comes to remuneration earned an average £3,200 per annum more than meeker colleagues – this adds up to a very tidy £385,000 for the average 40-year career; according to survey findings.

Of course in the public sector you may feel constrained by your time-served increment system, your pay and grading structure, or even a sense of moral obligation towards other colleagues who will be facing redundancy; not to mention the wider public who are all feeling the effects of one of the worst recessions in living memory.

On the other hand, dependent upon your plight, maybe there’s no more Mr Nice Guy (or Girl) for 2011?